Good Idea

Re-thinking how we define "health."

In the past, people sought health care because they were sick. Now the medical-industrial complex seeks patients. It encourages those with minor symptoms to be evaluated and urges those who feel well to get “checked” — just to make sure nothing is wrong.

So, if health is the absence of abnormality, the only way to know you are healthy is to become a customer.

But healthy people aren’t great customers; they’re like the people who pay off their entire credit card balance each month. The money is in those in whom an abnormality can be found.

I'm a bit annoyed with my healthcare over the past year and a half. I basically paid $1000 (which amounts to the maximum) because my deductible is $500 per year - 08' and 09' for a year and a half where I wasn't sick. One could argue on the plus side - $500 a year is a small price to pay for healthcare - especially when you pay over $500 a year on a slew of things like car insurance or alcohol or movies or gay porn. This is smart, preventative care, one can argue.

On the negative side, I maxed out my healthcare costs to get blood work done when I felt perfectly fine. What did they discover? I should take Vitamin D everyday, which is apparently a trend these days in healthcare and over 50% of my doctors patients are "Vitamin D deficient." It seems to me, Vitamin D is a bit like Capri pants, twitter, and pinkberry, a trend that may or may not stick around. In any case, maybe in a perfect world I take some Vitamin D, or maybe I don't. Who freaking knows. But is it worth maxing out my healthcare expenditures? I paid $1000 for it, who knows how much my insurance paid.

The whole experience left me feeling like a customer.